10 thoughts on “Is Pawlenty Wrong for the Right?”

Newt, these are your peeps, so let me ask: Does this straw poll matter? Will it dry up his money? Will activists now be afraid to sign up with him because they view him as politically non-viable? Or is this just one small isolated interest group early in the process, and therefore not a big deal?

I have to say, TPaw doesn’t seem to be getting a lot of respect so far for his efforts. now, i understand that he did do well on the fundraising side, and that opened some eyes. Also, he is supposed to be doing a good job on the grassroots organizing side. But I don’t see any of the pundits talking him up as yet. maybe we just need to wait for the first south carolina straw polls to take place?

Yeah, what is it about Norm? When I think of Norm, sleazy also comes to mind–pretty quickly, too. For some reason, i just don’t trust him. and you are also right–I do not feel the same way about Pawlenty at all. I hope it isn’t just the accent….

You can’t fault Governor Pawlenty for not trying. He has been moving aggressively to the right, and has gotten outstanding national coverage every step of the way. I see him in the national media a lot more than Romney, for instance. He’s a very talented pol, and he has been on his game.

As a guy who has a younger feel than most in the GOP presidential field, I might have thought that Pawlenty could have broken through in a room full of younger conservative activists. His speech to GPACers was full of red meat and edgy comedy, and that seems like the right play for that audience. I know it’s early, but I am surprised he isn’t catching on more.

The only thing Republicans and teabaggers hate more than Barack Obama is, uh, every single Republican “front runner.” This became comedically clear again, last night, when the CPAC crowd chose Doctor Ron Paul as their 2012 GOP nominee for president. Paul got 31% of the vote, which means he literally performed an abortion murder on Mitt Romney, who usually wins these things because he’s such an asshole — Romney finished with 22%, proving once again that he can’t even get a fourth of the room to like him, even when that room is exclusively filled with Republicans.

But the “world’s biggest loser” of the night was truly our Alaskan Quitter Bear, the Facebook user Sarah Palin. Nobody likes her at all! She ended up with a patriotic “f#ck you” of 7%, but at least that was better than unloved has-beens Pawlenty (6%) and Gingrich (4%) and Huckabee (4%).

Pawlenty cannot get traction anywhere – he’s a total non-starter and I have to ask how anyone can take him seriously? Take a straw ballot anywhere and Tim will be lucky to marshall 5% support from anyone. “None-of-the-above” gets a greater percentage of support than TPaw. By his own admission, TP cannot even get traction at home in his own bedroom with his wife.

How long can this farce of a candidate be still a murmur in circles of gossip?